Six Techniques of Shooting Maple Leaves

The intoxicated red maple is the beauty pursued by photographers. Shan Ye will put on autumn clothes, and the yellow and green covered with the earth will begin to add red and orange. Photographers chasing this colorful autumn scenery should concentrate the beautiful scenery in an instant and leave it in everyone's memory forever. Below I have compiled six tips for shooting maple leaves, hoping to help you!

Tip 1: Use the light flexibly.

For photographers, light is just a natural meat cleaver. Especially the photographic theme of maple leaves, the key lies in the bright color effect. With the help of light, it can increase the three-dimensional sense of maple leaves and highlight the unique atmosphere of the scene. Therefore, the use of light is the key factor affecting the success or failure of the work.

Carefully observe the subtle changes of light between maple leaves. Even in the same place, changing the light angle gradually with time can make the fiery red maple leaves show completely different colors, levels and three-dimensional sense. When shooting, the saturation of maple leaves in the image can be strongly changed by the difference of smooth light, oblique light and backlight. You can also use the overlap of light and shadow to create unique images.

Tip 2: Add a polarizer to make the picture more divided.

Whether it is sunny or rainy, the polarizer can effectively suppress the reflection on the surface of leaves, restore the original color of leaves, and make the texture of leaves clearer. These effects are especially obvious when shooting in rainy days, along the light and side light. In the case of backlight, the function of polarizer can't be shown on the leaves, but at this time, the effect of blue sky can be increased by rotating polarizer moderately.

Tip 3: If you can't change the direction of light, move your feet.

Under the conditions of backlight and transmitted light, the leaves become bright and stereoscopic, and the leaves and veins are more clearly visible under backlight, which is also the transmitted light effect of light passing through the leaves, which is more transparent and vivid than the reflected light effect seen under light.

When the sun shines, the shadow part of the picture has a great contrast, and when the difference between bright and dark parts is too large, it will often be overexposed. Therefore, when we change the angle at which the red maple looks ordinary under the sunlight and turn the light into backlight or transmitted light, we can take more stereoscopic and colorful photos of the maple leaf.

Tip 4: Cloudy weather is more suitable for shooting maple red.

It is easier to get works with large contrast between light and dark on sunny days, but at this time the leaves are hard in tone. Maple leaves washed by rain will be moderately moist, which can show the soft side of maple leaves. If you want to show the softer side of maple leaves, cloudy weather may be more suitable. Basically, as long as you are familiar with and use the control of light, different weather will always have different "maple" feelings.

No one can control the weather, but your feelings about the environment and your judgment when shooting will be reflected in the works you shoot. Therefore, if you do your homework in advance and make use of the characteristics of the environment at that time, you will certainly gain something.

Tip 5: Pay attention to the background and add the story of the photo.

Although Hongfeng is the protagonist in maple leaf photography, if the picture arrangement and background selection are lost when composing, the photos taken are just a bunch of red and lonely maple leaves. Even when shooting close-ups of maple leaves, background factors should not be underestimated.

The choice of background should be based on highlighting maple leaves, supplemented by setting off maple leaves, and never pretend to be the master. Observe the environment, skillfully arrange the position of red leaves in the mirror, or find suitable light and shadow and composition in the environment where maple leaves are located.

This not only helps to set off the maple leaf and the current shooting background, but also shows the correlation between the maple leaf and the surrounding environment. In a similar way, arrange maple leaves, then use the color and brightness of the background, or blur the aperture, you can also create dramatic maple leaves.

Tip 6: Use increase or decrease exposure compensation, or surround exposure.

A good maple leaf composition should be arranged according to the selected background and the relevance in the picture, and it is also important to appropriately increase or decrease the exposure value. Pay attention to the brightness of the background, the light angle and brightness difference of the main maple leaf, and appropriately increase or decrease the exposure compensation. The amount of increase or decrease compensation depends on the brightness contrast between the red leaves and the background and the proportional distribution with the picture. If you can't achieve the desired picture exposure value within the tolerance, using a wide range of closed exposure or using a black card to control exposure is also an effective way to obtain a successful work.